Institute of Chemical Engineering

Getreidemarkt 9 /166
1060 Vienna
Austria
www.vt.tuwien.ac.at

Combination of Power-to-Gas
with Biogas Plant
Doubling of biogas production through
the use of excess electricity for electrolysis and methanation

The increasing proportion of renewable energies,

such as wind and photovoltaics, in the electricity
supply brings challenges with it. The generation of
electrical energy is getting more frequently out of
sync with consumption. On the one hand, this
requires reinforcement of the network and
intelligent control strategies – smart grids – and, on
the other hand, it also needs a new approach
regarding storage and transportation of this energy.
Power-to-gas technologies could form a significant
part of future energy systems. This refers to the use
of (excess) electrical energy to split water molecules
by means of electrolysis resulting in hydrogen with a
variety of options for further use.
Objective
The aim of Prof. Harasek‘s research group in
theresearch field of thermal process technology &
simulation was to develop an energetically and
economically efficient and ecologically sustainable
overall concept for the power-to-gas approach. The
research, advanced over many years by TU Wien‘s
gas separation engineers, led to the development of
new, highly efficient and integrated membrane gas
filters separation technology with low energy
requirements. This technology seems predestined
for use in the newly envisaged power-to-gas
concept.
Approach
The newly developed system presents the following
components and properties:
 Combination of the power-to-gas approach with
existing or new biogas plants
 Direct use of the CO2 separated from the biogas
for conversion into methane with H2 from water
electrolysis – thus closing of the regional CO2
cycle
Part of the future of energy: green energy stored in gas
 Conventional, one-step methanation
 Processing of the product gases from methanation
by means of membrane technology using
highlyselective gas permeation membranes
 Recirculation of H2 and CO2 gases which are
notconverted within the system
 Flexibly usable gas storage tank
 During non-active methanation: use of membrane
separation for the processing of biogas
The new system is based on the following already
well proven process components which can be
combined and coordinated with each other very
well: Biogas system, electrolysis, gas storage tank,
methanation, gas processing with membranes and
energy integration.
The essential key task is gas treatment undertaken by
means of membrane technology. This separation
technology can either be used to process the
product gases from methanation to the pipeline
specifications or, alternatively, can be used to
process all of the biogas from the biogas plant if no
excess power is available for electrolysis and thus
methanation is turned off.
As a result, H2 and CO2 which cannot be converted in
a single methanation step are separated and
recycled – whereby the gas flow is either added
directly to the feed flow for methanation or
temporarily stored in a gas storage tank.
Market proven technologies with
high process efficiency can be used
for the process steps of electrolysis
and methanation.

Results
The research group has many years
of experience and can offer a
design model which was developed
in-house for the concrete designing
of the membrane separation
system.
Results from process modelling of
the whole system have shown that
Flow chart of the power-to-gas system developed at TU Wien
the gas processing is indeed usable
for both processing tasks.
Successful tests with a variety of gas mixtureses for  Temporary storage of CO2 and H2 allows for
both process variants are available. The innovation flexible operating modes for methanation which
has been tested and proven in production plants varies with time
already.
 Methanation can be switched on automatically
 Robust and thoroughly tested membrane
Benefit separation technology ensures premium methane
quality and high yields for supplying the gas grid
The new system for the flexible storage of electrical
 Availability of highly efficient, dynamic and cost-
power offers the following advantages in
effective desulphurisation technology (developed
comparison with existing power-to-gas systems:
by TU Wien)
 Easy to integrate into existing biogas systems (with
 Low investment and operating costs – e.g. single-
membrane technology)
step methanation with up to 25 % lower
 Dual use of the membrane separation systems for investment costs
biogas or gas from the methanation
 Compliance with strict EU standards for the
 Doubling of biomethane production possible per production of bio-methane and other country-
biogas plant specific gas qualities up to 99.5 % methane
 High process reliability even with fluctuating content
availability of cheap excess power  Easy compliance with the gas grid limits for H2, CO2
 Valuable process heat at a high temperature level and CO in accordance with regional supply
from methanation usable for biogas operations directives

Notes

Contact
Ass.Prof. Dr. Michael Harasek
TU Wien – Institute ofChemical Engineering
+43 1 58801 166202
www.vt.tuwien.ac.at
michael.harasek@tuwien.ac.at
TU Wien - Research marketing